A file photograph dated 1998 showing Saudi-born billionaire Osama Bin Laden smiling as he sits in a cave in the Jalalabad region of Afghanistan. CREDIT: EPA

With 470,000 files released in one trance, it will likely take weeks for journalists, academics, and other researchers to shift through the documents in the trove and contextualise their significance.

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A newly released trove of documents recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound have revealed “secret dealings” between Iran and al-Qaeda.

Nearly half a million files found on the computer seized in the May 2, 2011, US raid on the al-Qaeda founder’s hideout in Abbottabad were released by the CIA on Wednesday.

A never-before-seen 19-page document purportedly written by a senior member of al-Qaeda details an arrangement between Iran and members of the group to strike American interests in “Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.”

Iranian intelligence facilitated the travel of some operatives with visas, while sheltering others.

The author of the file, described as “well-connected,” explains that al-Qaeda’s forces violated the terms of the agreement of the deal, however, resulting in several men being detained.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House CREDIT: AP

Iranian connections to Hizballah and Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are well-documented, but its ties to al-Qaeda have until now mostly been shrouded in secrecy.

The timing of the release comes as US President Donald Trump is trying to decertify a bilateral deal agreed with Iran to end its nuclear proliferation programme, which was negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama and one which he has described as the “worst deal ever made”.

Mr Trump has been keen to portray Tehran as America’s greatest threat and will no doubt seize upon the documents as proof of the Islamic republic’s support for terrorism in the region.

Speaking at a national security seminar organised by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington DC last month about the release of the documents, Mike Pompeo, CIA director, said al-Qaeda and Iran have always built “secret and open” ties.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo arrives for a closed briefing before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S. CREDIT: REUTERS

Mr Pompeo attributed the relationship between the two parties to the fact that they view the West as a common enemy, referring to an “ideological consensus” of their cooperation against the West.

He added that the two sides did not fight against each other because they considered the West a greater threat to them.

Mr Pompeo stressed that CIA is still watching these relations, especially with the complexity of the situation in Syria, noting that US intelligence is tracking the terrorist organisations’ loss of territories in Syria and Iraq.

His comments have raised alarm bells among critics of Mr Trump’s new strategy to counter Iranian influence, wary that hawks like Mr Pompeo may be making a case for war.

The documents also contained a log of bin Laden’s video collection, which included pornographic material, several Hollywood movies and three documentaries about himself.

Two newly-released videos also show scenes from the wedding of bin Laden’s son Hamza, the first picture of the heir apparent as an adult.

A video of Osama’s son is at the original.

The images are not current, but they are much more recent than the photo al-Qaeda is willing to distribute.

According to Thomas Joscelyn and Bill Roggio, scholars from the foundation who were allowed to study the trove before it was made public, it provides new insights.

“The Abbottabad repository confirms that bin Laden was anything but retired when US forces knocked down his door. He was not a mere figurehead,” they write in the Long War Journal.

“During the final months of his life, Osama bin Laden was communicating with subordinates around the globe. Recovered memos discuss the various committees and lieutenants who helped bin Laden manage his sprawling empire of terror.”

With 470,000 files released in one trance, it will likely take weeks for journalists, academics, and other researchers to shift through the documents in the trove and contextualise their significance.

(Corruption? In the DNC? In Washington? How could that possibly happen? It’s shocking!

–DM

Sen. Bernie Sanders / Getty Images

A liberal group made up of former staffers of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign has responded to the admission by former Democratic National Committee chairman Donna Brazile that the primary was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. They said the “corruption that plagues” the party goes far beyond the 2016 primary.

Brazile, who became the DNC’s interim chairman during last year’s primary, disclosed in Politico on Thursday morning that she was able to find “evidence of internal corruption” showing the DNC rigged the system “to throw the primary to Hillary” during her time as chairman. The evidence came in the form of an August 2015 agreement between the DNC and the Clinton campaign that gave Clinton control of the DNC’s finances, strategy, and staffing decisions a full six months before a single vote was cast.

Saikat Chakrabarti, who was director of organizing strategy for the Sanders campaign and now runs a group aiming to change the Democratic Party, said he wasn’t surprised to hear the admission from Brazile.

“We all knew that the primary was rigged,” Chakrabarti said on behalf of Justice Democrats, a group he founded. “But the corruption that plagues the Democratic Party is bigger than one primary—it’s become a rot set at the very root of a party [that] claims to be for working people.”

Chakrabarti added that the Democratic Party is currently “devoid of message, devoid of money, and devoid of a winning strategy.”

“The people want a party that works for the people and wins,” he said. “We are sick and tired of wasting money on helping a party that wastes it through incompetence and corrupt negligence.”

Justice Democrats says it has seen an uptick in donations—$2,500 an hour—since Brazile’s admission broke on Thursday morning. The group currently has a slate of candidates running for office in 2018, many of them challenging Democratic incumbents.

Carter Page says false charges in a Democrat-financed dossier brought him “irreparable damage” and subjected him to death threats. (Associated Press)

Mr. Steele, who paid Russian sources with Democratic Party money, made allegations that Mr. Page:

While on a publicized speaking appearance in Moscow in July 2016, met with two Kremlin connected figures who have been sanctioned by the U.S.

Agreed to a brokerage fee in exchange for pushing the end of U.S. sanctions.

Told an “ethnic Russian” he was working to swing Bernie Sanders voters to Mr. Trump’s side.

Worked hand-in-hand with then-campaign manager Paul Manafort to have Russia interfere in the 2016 election, including hacking Democratic Party computers.

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Former Donald Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on Thursday began his scheduled testimony before the House Intelligence Committee by bashing the panel itself.

He released his opening statement which singles out Democrats for reading charges against him from a Democratic Party-funded dossier.

Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democratic, was especially harsh on Mr. Page at the televised March hearing with then-FBI Director James Comey. Mr. Schiff read unverified allegations against Mr. Page from former British spy and dossier writer Christopher Steele.

Mr. Carter, a former volunteer Trump adviser who runs an energy investment firm in New York and worked for Merrill Lynch in Moscow in the 2000s, called Mr. Schiff’s and other Democrats’ dossier-quoting as “extensive misinformation.”

“Whereas my name was so thoroughly tarnished during your Committee’s March 20, 2017 discussion with James Comey about the Dodgy Dossier on national television,” he said. “I also request in the interest of time that my short biography be submitted for the record.”

If there is one person besides President Trump who was thoroughly trashed in the dossier, it was Mr. Page.

Mr. Steele, who paid Russian sources with Democratic Party money, made allegations that Mr. Page:

While on a publicized speaking appearance in Moscow in July 2016, met with two Kremlin connected figures who have been sanctioned by the U.S.

Agreed to a brokerage fee in exchange for pushing the end of U.S. sanctions.

Told an “ethnic Russian” he was working to swing Bernie Sanders voters to Mr. Trump’s side.

Worked hand-in-hand with then-campaign manager Paul Manafort to have Russia interfere in the 2016 election, including hacking Democratic Party computers.

Mr. Page has said the charges are fiction. He never met the two men in Moscow; he did not discuss or receive a brokerage fee; he did not have a discussion about Mr. Sanders; He has never met Mr. Manafort.

Referring to himself in the third person in his submitted biography, Mr. Page said, “He never was asked to obtain nor was he provided negative information about anyone, including Mrs. Hillary Clinton, by any Russian person or entity.”

Mr. Page served on the same campaign advisory panel as George Papadopoulos. Special Counsel Robert Mueller disclosed this week that Mr. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to an FBI agent about his contacts with Russian-connected people during the campaign. Mr. Mueller said he is cooperating with the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The panel met one time, with candidate Trump attending.

The FBI obtained a eavesdropping warrant against Mr. Page in the summer of 2016 on suspicion he worked as a agent for Russia.

The Annapolis graduate and former Navy officer said he was never a foreign agent. He called the monitoring unjustified and questions whether it was based on the dossier.

By making it clear through their actions to date that they will not stop their investigation until they get Trump, Mueller and his associates apparently view their investigation as a means to either overturn the election results or render them irrelevant. If Trump is either pushed out of office or denied the ability to govern in accordance with the agenda he ran on, then Mueller will have achieved that goal.

Netanyahu and his political camp’s victory came as a shock to Israel’s elites. Led by the media, which was itself an adjunct of the anti-Netanyahu campaign, and assisted by the Obama administration, which siphoned US government funds into anti-Netanyahu political groups, Israel’s elites were flummoxed by the election results.

Shortly after the election, the anti-Netanyahu media, with the support of police investigators, went on a hunt to find something – anything – to force Netanyahu from office. In the end, all they could come up with were two otherwise absurd allegations.

In the Mueller probe and the incessant probes against Netanyahu we see the new face of the Left. Unable to win elections, they exploit their control over the bureaucracy and media to overturn election results.

There can be no greater threat to the health of a liberal democracy than that.

Two things must happen for this situation to be corrected.

First, we must recognize what is happening and what it means for our systems of governance. Second, lawmakers in Congress and the Knesset alike need to stand up to the media and the legal fraternities and bravely restore the power to govern to those in whom the public has vested it.

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There are stunning parallels between US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of alleged collusion between US President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia and the ongoing criminal probes against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara.

Monday, after a weekend filled with speculation due to an illegal media leak regarding sealed grand jury indictments, Mueller and his team indicted two former Trump campaign officials, Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, for offenses related to their business and lobbying actions allegedly carried out between 2006 and 2014.

Mueller also announced that George Papadopoulos, a junior campaign aide, pled guilty to lying to investigators about a meeting he tried to arrange between then candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As commentators across the political spectrum have noted, none of the charges against Manafort and Gates have anything to do with Trump’s presidential campaign.

As for Papadopoulos, his story exculpates rather than implicates Trump’s campaign in collusion with Russia.

Not only did Papadopoulos’s boss on the campaign reject his offer to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin, the actions described in his indictment demonstrate that the Trump campaign had no significant ties to the Russian regime.

And yet, despite the apparent absence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, no one expects Mueller to close down shop. To the contrary.

The Manafort and Gates indictments and the Papadopoulos plea tell us that Mueller has abandoned the stated purpose of his investigation. Having found no evidence of collusion – criminal or otherwise – between the Trump campaign and Russia, he has decided to investigate the business dealings of Trump and his associates going back decades.

Mueller’s move demonstrates that he does not view it as his job to incriminate or exonerate Trump regarding alleged collusion with Russia. Indeed, he doesn’t view it as his responsibility to investigate Russian involvement in the 2016 elections at all.

If he thought that was his job, then Mueller would not be expanding his writ to include alleged crimes carried out by Trump’s associates that any US attorney could be investigating. He would be expanding his probe to include the growing mountain of evidence of collusion on the part of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and their attorneys, as well as Mueller’s friend and successor as FBI director, James Comey, with foreign agents, including Russian government officials, during and in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mueller’s apparent refusal to follow the evidence where it leads him regarding Russian involvement in the 2016 elections and his decision instead to investigate any and all suspicions against Trump and his associates whenever the events in question may have taken place tells us that he views himself as a hunter, not an investigator. His prey is Trump.

Mueller will continue to hunt Trump until one of three things happen.

Mueller may eventually find something – anything – to charge Trump with. Such a finding will precipitate an impeachment hearing in Congress that could lead to Trump’s removal from office.

His hunt may find nothing against Trump, but just as it netted Manafort, Gates and Papadopoulos this week, it may bring down other people related to Trump. At a minimum, his continued probe will keep those close to Trump under continuous investigation. In this case, Mueller’s probe will dominate Trump’s presidency and make it impossible for Trump to govern in accordance with the agenda he was elected to advance.

The third possible outcome is that Trump fires Mueller and ends his probe or that Congress defunds his probe or limits its duration. Such moves would require the unanimous support of congressional and Senate Republicans, which currently is not on offer.

The threat that Mueller’s investigation represents to US democracy couldn’t be clearer.

By making it clear through their actions to date that they will not stop their investigation until they get Trump, Mueller and his associates apparently view their investigation as a means to either overturn the election results or render them irrelevant. If Trump is either pushed out of office or denied the ability to govern in accordance with the agenda he ran on, then Mueller will have achieved that goal.

This then brings us to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu and the political Right won a massive electoral victory in 2015. For the first time in many years, the Right won indisputably. There are no coalition partners who place appeasing the PLO at the top of their governing agenda or even in the middle of their agenda.

Netanyahu and his political camp’s victory came as a shock to Israel’s elites. Led by the media, which was itself an adjunct of the anti-Netanyahu campaign, and assisted by the Obama administration, which siphoned US government funds into anti-Netanyahu political groups, Israel’s elites were flummoxed by the election results.

Shortly after the election, the anti-Netanyahu media, with the support of police investigators, went on a hunt to find something – anything – to force Netanyahu from office. In the end, all they could come up with were two otherwise absurd allegations.

First, that Netanyahu received too many gifts from his wealthy friends. Specifically, he allegedly received too many cigars from his friend Arnon Milchen. Second, Netanyahu taped himself discussing with his nemesis, Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon Mozes, the possibility of winning less adversarial coverage from Yediot Ahronot in exchange for lobbying Israel Hayom, which is owned by Netanyahu’s friend Sheldon Adelson, to cut back its circulation and so diminish its competitive edge over Yediot. This discussion, which came to nothing, was discovered by police investigators during their investigation of Netanyahu’s former chief of staff for alleged crimes unrelated to Netanyahu.

If the allegations were directed against any other politician, there is no doubt that they would not have led to police investigations. The late president Shimon Peres’s legendary use of the public trough to pay for his lavish parties and lifestyle were never the subject of investigation. Former prime minister Ehud Barak never faced investigation over his allegedly sketchy business dealings or his deeply suspect campaign financing operations. Former prime minister Ehud Olmert was never investigated for the massive collection of expensive pens that he was showered with by “friends” during his tenure in government.

And none the 43 lawmakers who voted in favor of a bill backed by Mozes to shut down Israel Hayom were ever investigated for their votes.

But with Netanyahu, with the prodding and active support of the media the police are pursuing multi-million shekel investigations around the world to find and interrogate Netanyahu’s friends and ask them about their gifts to him. Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich has hired Lior Horev, one of Israel’s top anti-Netanyahu political consultants, to serve as the police’s public relations representative.

As for the probes against Sara Netanyahu, every day the public is treated to yet more salacious, unsubstantiated tales of her alleged abuse of workers at the Prime Minister’s Residence.

While Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit did not initiate the probes against Netanyahu, he has done nothing to stop them. This despite their demonstrably prejudicial nature. Mandelblit is a product of the system that has turned the police, media and state prosecution into a political party united in their common goal of hunting the political Right. As a result, he can be expected to go along with whatever they do. If the police recommend indicting Netanyahu, Mandelblit can be counted on to dutifully indict him, even though the acts he is suspected of committing are not crimes.

Given the current dynamic, the only way for Netanyahu not be forced from office for actions that aren’t even criminal is for his political associates to rein in the out of control police and state prosecution by limiting their authority. So far, the media have cowed them into inaction.

In the Mueller probe and the incessant probes against Netanyahu we see the new face of the Left. Unable to win elections, they exploit their control over the bureaucracy and media to overturn election results.

There can be no greater threat to the health of a liberal democracy than that.

Two things must happen for this situation to be corrected.

First, we must recognize what is happening and what it means for our systems of governance. Second, lawmakers in Congress and the Knesset alike need to stand up to the media and the legal fraternities and bravely restore the power to govern to those in whom the public has vested it.

The mainstream media would doubtless prefer to hide from you that Saipov, an Uzbek national, came to the US thanks to Senator Chuck Schumer’s “Diversity Program,” and that there are many flaws in the US immigration system. The Diversity Visa lottery is high among them.

The program accepts 50,000 people a year, totally at random. Citizens from some countries that are US-friendly, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, are not even allowed to apply. Other countries, known to be epicenters of jihadists and Islamist ideologies, are permitted to participate. The applicant does not even need to have a high school education. Among the heaviest users of this lottery are people in countries known to have terrorism problems — specifically Middle Eastern, North African and Central Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

When a foreign person wins the lottery, the US gives out visas to his or her family as well — no matter where they were born. As a result, the number of people that come into the US thanks to the lottery program is actually far larger than 50,000 a year.

In addition, applicants do not need to have skills, education, training, or even the ability to speak English — in total contrast to successful immigration policies in other advanced countries, where immigrants must score high regarding the required skills, talents, and language before they are admitted.

Instead of worrying about political correctness, let us focus on how to protect this nation. The terrorists, who share the goal of devastating everything we value, do not care about political correctness or what the true purpose of the lottery might be. They see only the opportunity to take advantage of a hole in our immigration security. Instead of standing by and letting this continue, let us start, as the president suggested, by stopping the absurd and obsolete Diversity Visa lottery. The program serves no humanitarian, political, or economic purpose for America.

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Among the heaviest users of the US Diversity Visa lottery are people in countries known to have terrorism problems. Entering the Diversity Visa program, Islamists openly felt, was their opportunity to access the US and cause destruction to the country and its people, which they viewed as their enemy.

In this lottery, not just the winner gains access. When a foreign person wins the lottery, the US gives out visas to his or her family as well — no matter where they were born. As a result, the number of people that come into the US thanks to the lottery program is actually much larger than 50,000 a year.

The terrorists, who share the goal of devastating everything we value, do not care about political correctness, or what the true purpose of the lottery might be. They see only the opportunity to take advantage of a hole in our immigration security.

The US immigration system is significantly flawed; it paves the way for terrorists to enter the country. Since 9/11, no serious actions have been taken to address this fundamental problem. Mercifully, President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he wants the Diversity Visa Program terminated.

As the world now knows, on October 31, in a jihadi vehicular attack, a terrorist, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, drove a rented pickup-truck onto a crowded bicycle path in lower Manhattan. He murdered at least eight innocent people — including students, school staff and tourists celebrating a reunion — and wounded eleven people. He celebrated by shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the greatest”). After police stopped his rampage by shooting and wounding him, he asked for an ISIS flag to be brought to his hospital room.

While politicians avoid the truth that “lone wolves” among terrorists effectively do not exist and, along with many in the mainstream media, refuse to tackle the underlying cause of this terror act and refrain from fully reporting on terrorism, we all badly need an open discussion about it.

The mainstream media would doubtless prefer to hide from you that Saipov, an Uzbek national, came to the US thanks to Senator Chuck Schumer’s “Diversity Program,” and that there are many flaws in the US immigration system. The Diversity Visa lottery is high among them.

Sayfullo Saipov (left), the Uzbek terrorist who carried out the October 31 attack in Manhattan, moved to the US thanks to the Diversity Visa Program.

The program accepts 50,000 people a year, totally at random. Citizens from some countries that are US-friendly, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, are not even allowed to apply. Other countries, known to be epicenters of jihadists and Islamist ideologies, are permitted to participate. The applicant does not even need to have a high school education. Among the heaviest users of this lottery are people in countries known to have terrorism problems — specifically Middle Eastern, North African and Central Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.

If you had grown up, as I did, in Syria and Iran, you would have seen Islamists gathering in groups to further their goals. You would also have seen them encouraging and informing their affiliate groups through various means, including social media, to enter the US Diversity Visa program. This, they openly felt, was their opportunity to access the US and cause destruction to the country and its people, which they viewed as their enemy.

Worse in this lottery is, not just the winner gains access. When a foreign person wins the lottery, the US gives out visas to his or her family as well — no matter where they were born. As a result, the number of people that come into the US thanks to the lottery program is actually far larger than 50,000 a year.

In addition, applicants do not need to have skills, education, training, or even the ability to speak English — in total contrast to successful immigration policies in other advanced countries, where immigrants must score high regarding the required skills, talents, and language before they are admitted.

Other countries look for — and get — the best from other nations, and vet them carefully; the US just gives out green cards to anyone unreservedly.

The application can be easily completed on a website, and applying is free. If the applicant wins, he receives a permanent green card, paving the way for citizenship.

Furthermore, this is happening while many, far more qualified and hardworking people in the US, including skilled workers, taxpayers, doctors, engineers and CEOs, remain on temporary visas for years. Others wait and struggle interminably, to obtain a green card legally.

If even a few of the tens of thousands of Islamists who apply for the visa lottery every year kill “infidel” Americans and terrorize a whole nation, they have accomplished their goal.

While terrorist attacks are the most visible crimes committed as a result of this lottery, others go unnoticed. Even the lottery itself has become fraudulent. According to testimony from Stephen A. Edson before the House Judiciary Committee:

“In Bangladesh, for example, one agent is reported to have enrolled an entire phone book so that he could then either extort money from winning applicants who had never entered the program to begin with or sell their winning slots to others.”

The lottery program also poses health risks to Americans. If and when global epidemics occur, such as the Ebola virus, the lottery visa program does not stop. People with viruses and other serious infectious diseases can easily get into the country.

Even the screening and enforcement procedures are unreliable and pose a significant national security risk. As Janice Kephart, then National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, testified before Congress in 2011:

“The Diversity Visa (DV) Program is an unfortunate blind spot in our immigration system that has outlived whatever purpose it might have had. The applicants for these 50,000 “visa lottery” immigration slots require few skills. Neither their qualifications nor identity can be properly vetted. The program does not know, really, who these applicants are or their true purpose in coming to the United States. The program is a national security vulnerability, and has been used by terrorists and organized criminals to not only enter the United States, but to bring others in as well.

According to unofficial statements from the State Department, the program is rife with fraud in part because application standards are so low”.

Regarding the flimsy requirements and enormous resources that the US waste for this program, Kephart added:

“The program claims to have strict eligibility requirements, but only calls for a high school education or its equivalent or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience. In most of the countries eligible for a diversity visa, neither education nor work experience can be verified, let alone identity. Consular officers in U.S. embassies abroad thus spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to determine if people are who they say they are and actually qualify for the program. Checking watch lists based on names or prior U.S. immigration histories thus often has little bearing on making a solid determination of identity, qualifications, or legitimate national security concerns.”

Even known civil rights activists, such as Barbara Jordan, have pointed out that the Diversity Visa lottery does not provide any benefits to this nation. Despite all of this, the Diversity Visa 2019 green card lottery registration is now open.

Instead of worrying about political correctness, let us focus on how to protect this nation. The terrorists, who share the goal of devastating everything we value, do not care about political correctness or what the true purpose of the lottery might be. They see only the opportunity to take advantage of a hole in our immigration security. Instead of standing by and letting this continue, let us start, as the president suggested, by stopping the absurd and obsolete Diversity Visa lottery. The program serves no humanitarian, political, or economic purpose for America.

Imagine how much more devastation will occur if nothing is done.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, is a Harvard-educated scholar and political scientist, business advisor, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He is the author of “Peaceful Reformation in Iran’s Islam“.

An Israeli airstrike targeted a weapons factory south of the Syrian city of Homs late Wednesday night, Syrian and Lebanese media reported, adding the Syrian army fired anti-aircraft missiles at the Israeli fighter jets but missed. The report was not corroborated by any official Israeli source.

According to Sky News, four Israeli raids targeted an ammunition manufacturing plant in the industrial area of Hissia, 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Homs and 112 kilometers (70 miles) north of Damascus.

An unnamed Syrian military official was quoted by local media as saying the target was a copper factory, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based organization that reports on the civil war raging in the country, said the airstrike had targeted a military installation.

According to foreign media reports, the strike was the latest in a string of similar moves that have targeted Hezbollah-bound weapon shipments.

Israeli officials have expressed concern over Iran’s growing influence in Syria, where Tehran-backed groups have played a critical role fighting in support of President Bashar Assad during the conflict that erupted in 2011.

Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said Thursday that Israel would not allow weapon deliveries to Hezbollah.

“I can’t, of course, relate to reports about the IDF’s attack in Syria, but regardless, Israel’s position is clear: Smuggling arms to Hezbollah is a red line for us,” he told Army Radio.

“Israel has acted in the past and it will act in the future, according to available intelligence, to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah,” he said, adding that “I think the other side also understands this clearly, it understands that past strikes, for which we did take responsibility, were in line with this policy and these red lines.”

‘We’re ready for any scenario’

The strike has raised security tensions on Israel’s northern borders at a time when tensions on the Israel-Gaza Strip border are also climbing.

On Monday the Israeli military discovered and destroyed an Islamic Jihad terror tunnel dug from Gaza into Israel. The terrorist group vowed to avenge the nine operatives killed in the blast, and a senior official said the group’s forces have been instructed “to be on high alert. Any understandings with the Zionist enemy are revoked.”

A senior defense official with the IDF’s Southern Command said Wednesday that “this is still an ongoing operation and we still have decisions to make. Islamic Jihad was dealt a serious blow and it deserved it. We won’t apologize for it. We’re ready for any scenario.”

The official said that while no special instructions were issued to residents of the border-adjacent communities, the military was taking the Islamic Jihad’s threats seriously as “they’re struggling to contain this event because of the high number fatalities. Rockets or mortar shells can start flying here at any minute.

“Islamic Jihad has retaliation capabilities. They’re still not done recovering bodies from the rubble. Their dilemma is when and how to retaliate, but on the other hand, the further we move from the incident the greater the chance they won’t react,” he said.

According to the official, it was possible that the lack of immediate retaliation by Islamic Jihad over the tunnel’s destruction stemmed from Hamas’ strategic preference to prioritize the rapprochement with Fatah. Still, it is possible that Iran might try to sabotage the Palestinian unity deal by pushing Islamic Jihad to retaliate.

“We are prepared for multiple scenarios, including the possibility that they [Islamic Jihad] would target Judea and Samaria,” he said. “If they make a mistake and strike, they will be made to pay a price. Right now, they’re focused on how they can redeem their failures and that may prompt reckless actions.”

The IDF has elevated the alert level on the Gaza border, as well as in several other locations. As a precaution, it was also decided to limit troop movements in certain areas near the security fence.

The tunnel’s destruction has been hailed as a significant achievement by the Defense Ministry, IDF and the Israeli military industries, which together have developed tunnel-detection technologies that complement the defense establishment’s new operational perception.

“The discovery of the tunnel was not accidental. There’s a system in place, the consolidation of several capabilities into one system that we didn’t have before,” the official said. “We have significantly improved the ability to monitor depths of between 60 and 70 meters (200-230 feet) and it changed the situation on the ground. We’re making progress in neutralizing the tunnel threat. In the past, Hamas was more advanced than us, but we’ve narrowed the gaps and we’re on our way to circumvent the enemy.”

The official said that a team of experts – engineers, geologists and intelligence analysts – is involved in tunnel detection efforts. The team “decides whether there are suspicious developments underground. Anyone who is in the subterranean zone is endangering themselves. Anyone digging a tunnel in Gaza should know that they’re placing themselves at risk.”

Another defense official said, “We caught Hamas and Islamic Jihad with their pants down. They didn’t expect it, and the fact that we knew exactly where and how deep the tunnel was only proved that we’re on the right path to developing technology to eradicate tunnels.

“The strategy formulated to counter the tunnel threat includes a wall, technology and intelligence. The technology has proved itself to be effective because we reached the most accurate level possible to neutralize the tunnel.”

He stressed that the Islamic Jihad’s tunnel had yet to become operational, saying, “We know that the tunnel’s construction began months ago. It was not operational, it didn’t have an exit shaft on the Israeli side of the border, and it was not a threat to [border-adjacent] communities.”

1.It Was Not a “Lone Wolf” Attack

In addition to a potential accomplice that has since been arrested, an image of an ISIS flag on a cellphone near the location of the terrorist attack in NY surfaced two months ago.

According to the police complaint against Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, the 29-year-old began planning the attack close to a year ago. The complaint asserts that Saipov watched and was inspired by ISIS videos.

One of the two cellphones that were found in the truck had close to 90 violent ISIS propaganda videos on it, some with information on how to make a bomb.

John Miller, deputy New York police commissioner for intelligence, noted that Saipov “appears to have followed, almost exactly to a ‘T,’ the instructions that ISIS has put out.”

Two months before the attack, this picture taken near the site of the attack surfaced.

It is highly unlikely that Saipov was not communicating to other ISIS followers and leaders who most likely encouraged, supported and even aided him in carrying out the attack.

Terrorist “cells” do not necessarily have to be in physical proximity in the age of online communication.

As for an accomplice, the man the police were looking for was named as Mukhammadzoir Kadirov, a 32-year-old Uzbekistan national. “We have found him and I’ll leave it at that,” said William Sweeney, head of the New York FBI office.

2.His Mosque Was Under Surveillance

Saipov attended the Omar Mosque which was near his home in Paterson, N.J. It was one of the mosques and Islamic organizations that were being monitored by the NYPD in their now-defunct surveillance program.

The NYPD investigations, which began in the years after the 9/11 attacks, centered around whether or not extremists or potential terrorists might be attending the mosque, infiltrating and attempting to sway others to their line of thinking.

The Omar Mosque had been under surveillance since at least 2006 due to this possibility.

In 2011, the Associated Press began running a series of articles detailing and making public the NYPD surveillance program (articles for which they won a Pulitzer Prize). The articles set off a campaign of misinformation from Islamists and their allies aimed at smearing the department’s anti-terrorism efforts.

By 2014, under intensive pressure, the NYPD tanked the program. Islamist agitator Linda Sarsour was one of the activists prominent in this campaign to get the program cancelled, saying that the program “created psychological warfare in our community.”

The facts, however, consistently showed that the NYPD was not casting a wide net over Muslims in the hopes of nabbing a few terrorists. Its targets were chosen on concrete information. That is why the NYPD won bi-partisan praise at the time, with Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer endorsing then NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

A subsequent lawsuit against the department claiming damages from the investigations brought by a Muslim Brotherhood-founded group among others was dismissed by a district court judge in 2014.

The Islamists argued that the NYPD should pay them for damages resulting from its intelligence-gathering on them, however, according to the judge, the only reason these plaintiffs could allege that they were suffering was because the Associated Press detailed the NYPD operations to the public.

Perhaps if the program had not been cancelled, the latest terrorist attack might have been prevented.

3.The Attack Was Based on Ideology

In an interview by law enforcement officials, Saipov asked if he could display the ISIS flag in hospital room. According to the police complaint, he told the officials, “he felt good about what he had done.”

Investigators also recovered close to a dozen pieces of paper with Arabic writing on them praising ISIS. One said, “ISIS will endure.”

He said he would have liked to have continued the attack with his truck, killing more people, but couldn’t after he crashed into a school bus. Knives were also recovered at the scene.